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Overheard: Radioactive mama, we'll reach critical mass tonight!

  • doomsday clock atomic plattersWord is out that the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists will soon be moving the Doomsday Clock one minute closer to midnight. Their site is currently under wraps, and a new site launch is scheduled for January 17th. The clock will have moved forward twice since George W. Bush was elected president; the last time in February 2002. From boingboing.net:
    "The January 17 announcement will take place simultaneously in two locations: at 9:30 a.m. ET at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., and at 2:30 p.m. GMT in London at The Royal Society. Speakers will include Stephen Hawking, BAS director Kennette Benedict, Royal Society president Sir Martin Rees, Case Western physics and astronomy professor Lawrence M. Krauss, and International Crisis Group co-chair Ambassador Thomas Pickering."
    It's probably been a while since you located your local fallout shelter, but as you're panicking and preparing your emergency kit, don't forget to download audio selections from Atomic Platters, Cold War Music from the Golden Age of Homeland Security from CONELRAD. Click here to listen to a selection of songs via Internet radio.
  • Seed ScienceBloggers are posting their reactions to the death of a 28 year old California woman, who competed for a Nintendo Wii video game player in radio station contest by drinking a lethal amount of water. According to Shelley Batts at Retrospectacle, water intoxification is a painful way to go:
    "Water intoxification can occur when the blood's plasma levels become too diluted and the body's electrolyte concentrations go off-kilter. If water enters the body faster than it can be removed (and in the case, they weren't allow to pee!) the body's fluids become diltued to dangerous levels. Cells swell as a result of changes in osmotic pressue, and when this occurs in the CNS and brain, it can be fatal. As the cells swell up, many burst under their own bloated pressure as the cell's membrane is no longer able to contain. "

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